Crossville Wildlife Manager Named Biologist Of Year

A Crossville-based wildlife manager named Biologist of the Year by TWRA’s Fisheries Division.

Regional Fisheries Biologist Justin Spaulding said he works with walleye, trout, muskie, pan fish, and other species in the twenty-five county area that makes up TWRA’s Region III. Spaulding said he’s proud of restoring over three miles of native trout waters near Tellico Plains and installing an ADA compliant fishing pier at Dale Hollow Lake.

“I think it’s going to give us the motivation to, hey, we’ve been working really hard on these things for a few years and they all kind of hit together at the same time,” Spaulding said. “As a team we’re going to keep pushing and what next can we move onto to improve fishing and the fish in the area.”

Spaulding said it felt a little weird to accept the award as his own because he works on a team of people who are all deeply involved in his different projects. Spaulding said it is still rewarding to see his work highlighted as he looks forward to future plans.

“Another one of the projects we were working on was with the Army Corps of Engineers at Center Hill Lake,” Spaulding said. “The water’s coming out of there, which is really close to Cookeville as well. We’re now having a minimum flow throughout the summer and fall which is going to help a lot for water quality. So excited about seeing the long-term improvements that we’ll get out of that for hopefully a long time to come.”

Spaulding said his team’s current projects include trout stocking efforts in Van Buren and Warren Counties as well as plans for Calfkiller River later in March. Spaulding said he got into this career because he has loved fishing ever since he was a young boy.

“I was fishing in a ditch behind the house when my parents wouldn’t take me to the river or the lake,” Spaulding said.